In God we trust?

From the dollar bill to the National Anthem, Christianity has always had a dangerous clandestine influence on the decisions of U.S. law makers, politicians and voters – despite the efforts of the Constitution to separate church from state.

However, last week, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington tried to make its influence on the District of Columbia as overt as possible.

In retaliation to a bill that would legalize gay marriage and make discrimination against homosexuals illegal in the work force, the archdiocese threatened to end all of its charitable contracts with the city. 

Though I might have agreed that the church should not be forced to marry gay couples, as they are not forced to marry any other kind of couple, that’s not what the archdiocese is fighting about. In fact, in the current bill, the church would not even be legally bound to this action. 

Instead, the church is disputing legislation that would only hold them, as well as all other institutions in the city, accountable to laws prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals and the need to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples.
So where, then, are the Catholic Church’s priorities?

They don’t seem to be for equality or for human rights, and based on their threats, they certainly don’t seem to be for the community – namely the 68,000 impoverished, hungry and homeless they currently serve and will reject if the bill passes.

It seems then, that the archdiocese is simply fighting for the right to discriminate against a minority group with little political or social power, and its main concern is exemption from a law that goes against its “religious freedom.”

But, imagine the implications of awarding a religious institution an exemption from U.S. law – it’s a treacherous proposition indeed. For when God and His followers are exempt from one law, where does it end?

Public stoning or sacrifice? Murder in the name of His Holiness?

Those may sound extreme, but to me, so does the idea of letting religious views and practices be above those of the rest of the nation.

Fortunately, however, members of the District’s city council have bravely and justly stood up to the oppressive intentions of the church.

They are not backing down to the threats of an institution that has tried to use public welfare as political leverage – a stand that will hopefully find its way to other cities and states, like Indiana, where some share this same desire to deny gay couples equal rights.

Allowing religious views to dominate political and legislative decisions is not only dangerous, but unconstitutional.

Let us not forget that America was founded on the freedom of beliefs and ideas – religious or otherwise – and none should hold supremacy against the law or our Constitution.

And though we are already “one nation under God,” let us not become one nation ruled by God.